COMMUNITY AT THE PALEY FESTIVAL: Last night’s program was a free for all because of Chevy Chase. He couldn’t really be contained and he insisted on doing anything and everything possible to pull attention to himself. I got annoyed by it but a lot of the crowd loved it. There’s so much talent in the cast and it frustrated me that we didn’t get to hear as much from them because of Chase’s antics. Thankfully, show creator Dan Harmon did get to speak quite a bit and though he thought he was rambling, he actually gave interesting, intelligent and often funny answers to the questions. Because the program quickly got out of control (I felt sorry for the moderator, he was totally out of his depth), I’ll try to boil it down to highlights – here goes nothing.
Q: The genesis of the show: Dan Harmon went to community college when his then-girlfriend was taking a spanish class. He took that class with her and he took a biology class. He was 32 years old and he had nothing else to do so he aced the bio class and the younger people in the class asked if they could study with him and while he thought they’d “siphon off my A,” he did form a study group with them. He wound up liking them “even though they had nothing to do with my career. I’m not a networker kind of guy. And then it dawned on me, this is the other half of life when you make friends with people.” The character of Jeff Winger comes from a guy who is a control freak and doesn’t acknowledge he’s a control freak.
Q: Cast members’ initial reactions to the pilot script: Chevy said he thought it was great and then toppled backwards off his chair. Ken Jeong said “I was a late addition to the show – I wasn’t in the pilot. I thought it was a hit and I jumped to do it. Every single person in this cast could headline a show.”
Q: Was there any concern about doing a show set in college? The track record of past shows like UNDECLARED and DELTA HOUSE was not good. EP Garrett Donovan said that with a community college, you get a wider age range, not just teenage kids. EP Russ Krasnoff said that we needed a setting where these organic people could be together. Both lauded Dan’s writing of the pilot.
Q: The pilot casting process – were the characters set in stone or was it about finding actors who could work together?
Russ Krasnoff: Dan knew these characters’ voices and it was rewarding to watch actors bring them to life
Dan: I learned from them that there’s a process.
Joe Russo: Pilot casting is a grudge match: the talent pool is limited, a lot of it is getting lucky. Joel was first in, we met with him and everyone loved him. We felt we could build the show around him. Chevy was next. We met with him, he fell asleep. He woke up and talked about his money problems (Chevy waved some money at this point). We had seen work Donald had done on YouTube.
Don: Also, Nick Cannon said no, right? He was busy with Mariah.
Joe: Troy was scripted as a white character.
Dan: I had no preconceived notion of the characters’ race
Don: Also, I’m pretty white.
Dan: this character is pretty white, like Woody Harrelson. We realized Donald was a star and that doesn’t mean adding “yo yo yo” before every line.
Don: In the earlier version of the pilot, Reverend Run is my dad. I try to sell Britta.
Dan: In 1999, I did the HEAT VISION AND JACK pilot and at the 11th hour of casting, there was nothing but white people in the show so we made the scientist black and I’ll never forget coming to the lot and seeing black men lined up, tall, short, fat, skinny, young, old. I try to create “race neutral” characters. The characters become the actors who play them. Jeff is Joel.
Q: Talk about Gillian.
Joe: It took us forever to cast the role of Britta. Dan knew what he wanted: some grit, she’s 2/3 full of herself, less stereotype.
Gillian: I was doing this really low budget indie film in NYC. I came back two weeks later and auditioned for the pilot. I don’t have to shut off part of my brain to play Britta. (The moderator mentioned that Gillian is Julliard-trained and asked if she was intimidated by the cast.) Yeah, I’m intimidated. I have no standup comedy experience. I’ve played a lot of trashy women – look it up on IMDB. I’m in good company – this is like grad school for me.
When Ken Jeong came in, Donald Glover thought, “Oh man, I saw that guy naked.” (THE HANGOVER) and Don says Ken is not afraid to try new stuff. Ken thinks Don is a genius who keeps everyone sane by improvising characters between takes like E.T. as a black comic. Dan Harmon says the best thing he can do for his show is write lukewarm crap and send it down to the set and let them play with it. Glover loves working on the show because the scripts are tight and funny and they still tell him to “go crazy.” Garrett Donovan says, “Any joke you give these actors, they make it better. Improv lines have become more and more a part of the show.”
When Dan Harmon commented, “the cast minus Chevy is nice,” Chase shot back with “I feel so much younger working with them. No I don’t. Every one of them has their own special talent. It’s like going to Home Depot.” Harmon then said that after he had a conversation with Chevy, someone told Harmon that Chase walked away saying, “I wonder what it’s like to be fat AND gay.”
Q for Joel: What have you learned from Chevy?
Joel: Not how to match my clothes. He’s like Nolan Ryan – he’s still alive. When he goes, he’s the funniest person on set. He throws the ball hard and then he calls you a prick. And he has the best stories.
Chevy on Joel: The pilot was well-written and fun. I asked Dan who was playing Jeff and they said Joel and mentioned The Soup. Joel is very very funny. I hope he can work out that hemorroid thing.
Ken: Joel can bring it. He’s a great actor. I love my scenes with him. Joel sets the tone for the show. He IS as nice and cool as you think he is.
Chevy: Joe is the star of the show and we support it but everyone in the cast – we’re amazed at what they do with their lines. I’m hard to make laugh and I laugh all the time here – on my way to the bank. I worked with some of the best on SNL. I don’t know that any of them could do better on a show like this.
Joel: We’re shooting an episode now where Chevy thinks he’s a wizard. I can’t wait for you guys to see it.
Joe Russo: There’s an interesting conceptual episode coming up.
Dan: It’s like an action movie in 20 minutes. We’re testing all corners of the room we’re in. And if the show were to die, let it go. DNR. I’ll do another show, it’ll have robots, you’ll love it.
Joel praised Dan Harmon as “an oracle and someone who knows sitcoms so well and he takes TV conventions, eats them, chews them, spits on it, poops it out and smears it around.” Joel also noted that none of the characters are cartoons. Gillian praised Harmon for always having emotional moments in the episodes and she loves that he’s done that from the start. Don Glover loves that Dan loves sitcoms and knows them so well – he wants the characters to be real and to see the other side of them too.
Garrett Donovan summed it up nicely when he said, “Sitcoms have become pretty cynical. We’re going back to that special moment in Act 3.”
When asked about the dedicated web content for the show and how good it is, Dan Harmon gave a shoutout to his assistant Dave Seger. Seger shoots all the web content and he also runs Channel 101 (Channel101.com).
One of the final questions had an audience member suggested that Joel play the title role in a FLETCH remake. Chevy Chase said, “I think he’d be a great Fletch cause someday I’m gonna die.”
Asked if Abed has Asperger’s Syndrome, Dan Harmon wouldn’t put a label on it. He says “some of my friends might have it. I’m keeping it like in life, not an Afterschool Special titled “Asperger’s: Deal with It!” Joel observed, “Abed is like Data or Spock” and Harmon added, “Or Peter Sellers in BEING THERE.”
They screened tonight’s episode of COMMUNITY titled “Physical Education” at the PaleyFest program. The main story is about Abed and the group’s fretting about him not having a girlfriend. I don’t want to spoil this for you because it’s one of the best stories they’ve told in their incredibly good freshman season. While the entire ensemble is strong, tonight’s episode belongs to Danny Pudi and Joel McHale. The episode also features McHale’s Jeff shooting billiards, first in shorts, then his underwear and then buck nekkid. Finally, be sure to watch the tag at the end of tonight’s episode which has Pudi and Donald Glover in an instant classic scene.
NIP/TUCK FINALE: I didn’t even record it because the preview looked so weak. I may catch one of the repeats but I’m not really curious about it. The show was waaaaaaaay past its peak.
LAST RESTAURANT STANDING: This week’s episode with the last cycle’s winners Michele and Russell was better than this entire season as Raymond Blanc trained and harangued his new business partners as they prepared to open their Cheerful Soul restaurant with him. Watching Blanc question the chef and then taste and re-taste and re-taste the menu and critique every little detail was fascinating and gave you an idea of why Blanc is a master restauranteur. There was also a very touching moment when Blanc took Russell aside before the big opening night and told him to relax and be himself and he would be fine. It was very fatherly and very sweet. Perhaps the next season of the show should chronicle the first six months of The Cheerful Soul.
THE GOOD WIFE: This week’s episode was yet another strong installment which featured a very good turn by Alan Cumming as Eli Gold, a tough campaign manager Peter hires. I can’t wait to see more of his character. I continue to marvel at the subtleties in Julianna Margulies’ Alicia. Peter won his appeal and has moved back home but she’s clearly not enthused about it and looks to her work as an attorney to keep her out of the house. She’s also feeling very competitive with Cary (Matt Czuchry) and it’s forcing her to be more assertive with her bosses. I’m also loving the simmering affection between Alicia and her boss Will (Josh Charles); that’s clearly going to progress before the end of the season, don’t you think?
BECAUSE I READ ABOUT TV TOO: I loved the Vanity Fair piece “Big Trouble at 11:35″ about the Letterman/Halderman matter and Letterman’s pattern of dating women he worked with because he’s never had much of a life outside work. It’s a very good read.
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2010/04/letterman-201004?printable=true
I’m off to the PaleyFest program for DEXTER tonight and in honor of DEXTER, TODAY’S SURF WRITTEN WHILE LISTENING TO: The Doors “People Are Strange” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3CHi_9sxj0
Tonight’s rundown:
ABC: 8:00pm. Grey’s Anatomy (R) 9:00pm. Grey’s Anatomy 10:00pm. Private Practice
CBS: 8:00pm. Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains 9:00pm. CSI 10:00pm. The Mentalist
FOX: 8:00pm. American Idol Results Show 9:00pm. Kitchen Nightmares
THE CW: 8:00pm. The Vampire Diaries (R) 9:00pm. Supernatural (R)
Discovery: Extreme Peril, Surviving Death
FX: 10pm: Archer
History: Modern Marvels, Food Tech
Lifetime: 10pm: Project Runway, Models of the Runway
TNT: NBA Basketball: Jazz at Suns
USA: Burn Notice season finale
That’s a wrap for now.
